Political biz

Agriculture’s history in Sonoma County is also an economic history. Dairy, poultry, eggs, sheep, and cattle remain foundational farming and ranching alongside of grapes for wine. The 2015 Crop Report from the Agricultural Commissioner suggests that winegrapes and milk provide more than $565 million of agricultural value to Sonoma County’s economy, representing slightly more than 2 percent of the total. The total value of agriculture production in 2015 was slightly below $757 million, or just under 3 percent of the County’s overall economy.

California’s welfare system, known as CalWORKs, is in crisis. You might not hear much about it in the newspaper or on television, but this problem costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Instead of serving as a temporary assistance and retraining program that leads its recipients to new work and financial self-sufficiency, CalWORKs has become a way of life for many.

Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League, writes an open letter to President Obama, which challenges his use of the phrase “common sense” and how it applies to small businesses in America.

Angie M. Grainger, chair of the CalCPA State Financial Literacy Committee, discusses the benefits of SB691, which would raise California CPA licensing to national standards under the Uniform Accountancy Act.

If you wanted to make everyone in California build energy-efficient buildings, how would you do it? Would you enact new standards, city-by-city and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction, creating a jumble of different regulations? Or would you enact a new set of building codes and enforce the same energy and other efficiency standards across the state?

After receiving significant campaign contributions from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and special interests representing the biotechnology industry, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has ramrodded legislation through the House of Representatives that will let billionaire venture capitalists hijack federal small business contracting programs. Thousands of legitimate small businesses across America could be forced to close their doors if the legislation becomes law.

As the presidential campaign season gets busier and busier, candidates are talking about illegal immigration and the 11 million illegals in this country. But no one is talking about the issues that directly affect and concern the 23 million small business owners in the United States. Small businesses are being neglected and left out of the political process. My question to all the candidates is: Where’s the beef? Isn’t it about time we had some specific plans and proposals from our presidential candidates about how they’ll be trying to help out small business owners? I think it’s about time we heard some real solutions to the real problems small business owners face on a day-to-day basis.

With the results in for the first few primaries, one thing is clear: There’s going to be a contest on both sides of the aisle for the 2008 presidential nominee. This means more campaigning, more rhetoric and more speculating on whose base is being shored up. The focus on change and which candidate is truly apt to deliver is thinly veiled; talk of change is cheap. Now is the time to challenge both sides to spell it out.

Many of California’s most fertile valleys are located far from Sacramento, but millions of farmland acres are nonetheless being threatened by an ongoing crisis in that city. For the first time in four years, California’s most important land conservation program is being threatened, as Governor Schwarzenegger tries to close a lingering structural budget deficit.

The California Land Conservation Act of 1965 is one of the most unique farmland protection laws in the country. While most states have some form of preferential assessment practice for agricultural land, California’s Williamson Act requires a 10- or 20-year commitment by landowners to maintain the land as agricultural or open space in return for lower property taxes based on the income-producing capability of the land. This commitment takes the form of a contract between the landowner and the local government.

Governor Schwarzenegger—“The People’s Governor” as his official press release proclaims—spoke recently to the National Press Club and graciously offered our nation’s leaders some lessons from his successful “post-partisan” leadership in California. It’s an elegant concept, built upon the works of the great philosopher Rodney King when he posed the age-old question of human existence: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Downtown Santa Rosa has struggled for viability and survival since the shopping mall craze took over Main Street America back in the 1950s.

Unlike many mid-sized United States cities, Santa Rosa has survived—although the struggle to restore the economic power and retail superiority it enjoyed in the first half of the 20th century continues.

Maryland has become the regulatory camel’s nose under the tent of American commerce. Soon enough the rest of the beast will push its way in, uprooting stakes and rope and bringing the whole canvas crashing down upon all inside. Baltimore was the founding home to the great-sounding “living wage” idea that many cities followed, only to find out how it actually punishes the people it was intended to help by shutting off job growth and the possibility of advancement.

It’s an honor to be Mayor of Rohnert Park for 2006. On the evening I became Mayor, my acceptance remarks concluded with the following statement: “I see opportunities for future growth of business and residential mixed-use areas which will be designed and built to incorporate a more sustainable lifestyle for generations to come.” This article provides me with a welcome opportunity to expand upon that statement.

As governor from 1959 to 1967, Pat Brown presided over the most breathtaking period of public works construction in California’s history. During those years, California built the finest highway system in the world, one of the largest water projects in history and the foremost university system in the country. At a time when the population grew twice as fast as it does today, the state kept pace with the demand for schools, ports, prisons, libraries, parks and power plants.

When most farmers harvest their crops each year, they don’t have to check with the government before deciding what to pick. But when foresters prepare for a harvest, they must develop a detailed harvest plan and get the approval of several agencies within state government—any of which can weigh in against the harvesting on private property.

There's an old adage that comes to mind when reading the Governor's budget: "When you're up to your eyeballs in alligators, it's hard to remember that you came to drain the swamp." The practical application of that adage will define the success or failure of this administration and, with it, of California. The fatal mistake would be to believe that the most important budget issue facing the administration is the 2004-05 budget.A much more critical issue is whether and how fundamental reforms enacted this year will decisively shape future budgets.

In this Issue

To call Sonoma Raceway a track is an understatement. The year-round motorsports complex is home to 75 businesses in 104 shops, a performance racing school, a kart track, several campgrounds, 44 pit ...

Located at 3565 Airway Dr. in Santa Rosa, NorthBay biz magazine is a monthly business-to-business publication covering Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties. This year, the magazine is celebrating 42 years of continuous operation. It originally hit the stands in 1975, when it was called Sonoma Business, and only covered Sonoma County. Its current owners, Norm and Joni Rosinski and John Dennis, acquired it in 2000 and changed its name to cover an expanded market. More here..